Watching Over You
by Naito Tenshi
Summary: Post-series, spoileriffic... 'when I swore my loyalty to you, what I offered was my soul, not only my physical manifestation, in service'


Watching Over You

Naito Tenshi

A/N: This is set after the end of the anime series. Yes, Knives is alive. To any one who thinks Vash actually _killed him; you missed the entire point of the series. Congratulations, way to go. I knew Cartoon Network would fuck it up by cutting off the special ending credits. (Not that they didn't already butcher the regular credits...) Apparently, people think Vash would take the trouble to bandage and carry off his brother's corpse. You're an interesting lot, I'll give you that. XD /end rant._

Anyway, this could be called yaoi if you like to read stuff that way, but I didn't put it in explicitly. And dear gods no, it's not twincest. ::shudder:: There's also supernatural stuff going on... woooOOOOooOOOOoooOOOoooo... scary. Well, not really. But anyhow, sit back, read, enjoy if possible despite my crappy writing., review. Rock on. .^_^

            Sincerely,

            One (1) Naito Tenshi

            The room wasn't anything spectacular, but at least it wasn't particularly grimy. The walls were a bit drab; sort of a light brownish hue, though it wasn't an unpleasant color. The furnishings were minimal. There was a bed, a nightstand with a lamp on it that provided some soft illumination, and a wooden chair at the bedside. The figure in the bed was resting, a bit uncomfortably, though less so than he had been. His face was blanketed in a warm, golden glow from the lamplight. He was frowning, and his brow was slightly furrowed. The chair being empty was a rare sight; Vash had been watching over his brother most of the time since he returned with an injured Knives slung over his shoulder. At the moment, though, Knives' twin was occupied with dinner, as the small-statured insurance girl had demanded he actually sit at the table instead of have his meal at his brother's bedside. Though Vash didn't know it, at least he wasn't leaving Knives alone. Despite the empty chair, the unconscious plant was still being watched over, though your eyes would not be able to tell you that.

            He had taken up a position on the empty side of the room, near the wall. From his viewpoint, the cluttering of furniture in the one corner appeared very strange and yet made sense; after all, it revolved around his Master. He had been watching his Master when Vash was on his way to face him, he had been watching his Master during the fight, he had followed Vash back as the idiot carried his Master off, screaming until if he had a throat, he would have permanently destroyed it, and lunging vainly through the outlaw's back the entire way, and since they had arrived back at the modest house Vash and the girls were staying in, he had taken up residence against the empty wall, switching periodically from glowering at Vash's back to watching his Master with concern and back again.

            Now that Vash was gone from the room, however, and for the first time, for an extended period, he slowly moved towards the bed. Death had not changed him; he eyed the being in the bed with all of the humbled reverence of the most pious of worshippers would when faced with their god. The analogy, however, was not really an analogy so much as a statement of Legato's current position. He eyed the chair for a moment, realizing that it being a material object made it useless to him in his current state, and instead simply kneeled by the side of the bed. Carefully, tentatively, almost afraid, though he knew it was not really possible, that his Master would punish him for having the nerve to touch a superior being, he extended a hand and stroked a few short, pale strands off of that perfect creature's forehead. He was still a bit fevered, Legato noted, and noting the effect that his contact had on the living – he seemed to drop their temperature when he touched them – he left his hand on Knives' forehead. Even if it wasn't really their temperature dropping so much as a sensory reaction, it would probably comfort his Master at least a little, and that was all Legato sought to do. It did seem to work; Knives' brow relaxed a bit, his frown lost a bit of its intensity. This brought a small, peculiar smile to Legato's face. This comfort was more than he had ever been able to provide his Master in life.

            "You must get better, Master," Legato voiced softly, though the plant would be unable to hear him. To his surprise, though, Knives seemed to react. His brow furrowed again, looking slightly puzzled, and he muttered something unintelligible.

            "Master... I do not know if you can hear me, but you cannot stay like this," Legato continued on, gaining hope from what seemed like a direct reaction to his words from the plant, "Your kind, in the bulbs... they need you. You know that you must find a way to help them. You have always wanted to... even if you didn't tell the Guns, _I_ always knew that was what you wanted. Perhaps your efforts in this direction didn't turn out for the best, but you must find a way to liberate them."

            The slightly confused look did not leave the plant's face, though this time he muttered something Legato could actually hear bits of, and they seemed to be the most important bits as what he heard was, "...you're... dead."

            "Yes, Master, I am dead," the faithful minion agreed eagerly, "For you and for your cause. But when I swore my loyalty to you, what I offered was my soul, not only my physical manifestation, in service. And as it would seem that my soul does continue to exist, I will remain by your side, unless you will it otherwise. But regardless of my current state, you must wake up and fight on. You must help those in captivity... you know your brother won't do it, he'd much rather have humans thrive off of his own kind's slavery than consider their state. But you can accomplish what you have set out to do, Master. I know you can... I believe in you."

            Knives' brow relaxed again as he gave a small noise that was most likely some form of assent. Legato's hand slowly dropped from his master's forehead as he stepped back a bit – he could hear Vash's footsteps returning down the hallway. His gaze remained on his Master's face, though, and was soon rewarded with the gradual opening of a pair of blue eyes. When Vash reentered, he froze in the doorway and stared at his brother in surprise for a few moments.

            "Knives... you're awake," he stated as a smile broke out across his face.

            As he put a great effort forth to sit up, Knives grumbled in slight annoyance, "And you're as perceptive as ever."

            Vash's grin widened as he rushed to the bedside and hugged his brother. Knives looked at Vash with an eyebrow raised, then raised both eyes heavenward as if to query whatever forces may be why exactly he had been burdened with this sibling. When Vash drew back, his eyes remained on his brother.

            "So, are you feeling any better now?" he asked.

            Knives glared in return, "Oh yes, Vash, I'm doing just fine. Thank you for piercing all of my limbs with bullets. I really do appreciate that."

            Vash frowned, "You didn't exactly give me much of a choice."

            The shorter-haired twin crossed his arms, wincing only slightly in pain, and glared rather impressively at the wall on the other side of the bed.

            "Let me go get you some soup or something, okay?" Vash asked, his tone quickly doing a 180 back to the cheerfulness it had first possessed.

            His brother grunted in assent.

            "Okay, I'll be right back!" With that, Vash hurried down the hallway.

            Knives glared after Vash for a moment, then flopped back onto his pillow, musing to himself, "...what a strange dream..."

            This gained a slight smile from the all-but forgotten ectoplasm-minion, and a quiet promise, "I will watch over you always, my Master."

End.

A/N: If you asked me why I wrote this, I wouldn't be able to tell you. I just _did_. I made no conscious effort, it just appeared in my head, demanded to be written, and I mindlessly obeyed. I do stuff like that sometimes. ^_^;;

Anyway, hopefully you got some small enjoyment out of this very strange... thing.

Oh, and for the record... I want a Legato. ;_;


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